Wigmore is a suburb/village in the southeast of the
Medway
Medway is a unitary authority district and conurbation in Kent, South East England. It had a population of 278,016 in 2019. The unitary authority was formed in 1998 when Rochester-upon-Medway amalgamated with the Borough of Gillingham to for ...
conurbation in
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. It is broadly bounded by the
A278 road
The A278 (Hoath Way) is a road running north–south in north Kent, England. The whole length of the road is dual carriageway, within Medway Council but is a non-primary route.
History
The A278 was formerly used as the number for the Felbrid ...
to the west,
Rainham to the north and the
M2 motorway This is a list of roads designated M2:
Europe
* M2 motorway (Great Britain), a motorway in England
* M2 expressway (Hungary), a motorway in Hungary
* N2 road (Ireland)#M2 motorway, a motorway in the Republic of Ireland
* M-2 highway (Montenegr ...
to the south.
History
The placename is attested in 1275 as ''Wydemere'', from an
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
''*wīd-mere'' "broad pool".
A sparsely-populated hamlet and farming area until the 20th Century, Wigmore was briefly the site of a smallpox isolation hospital (Alexandra Hospital) from 1902, and began to be developed as a village from 1906 when the 365-acre Wigmore agricultural estate was partitioned and sold as plots, initially as smallholdings (hence the local “Smallholders Club”) and rural shanties for Medway families.
Amenities
St Matthew's Church was founded in 1925 and was replaced in the 1960s by architects
Brett, Boyd and Bosanquet Brett, Boyd and Bosanquet were a partnership of British architects, known particularly for their post-war church designs in southern England.
The founders were Lionel Brett (1963–2004), Kenneth Boyd and Peter Bosanquet (died 2005).
Brett and B ...
. A
prefab
Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. The term is u ...
Evangelical church was opened later.
Now a fully suburbanised village within south
Gillingham, the area has a community primary school, medical centre, and local football team, Wigmore Youth F.C.
Transport
Arriva bus 132 runs between Wigmore, Rainham and Chatham.
References in popular culture
Rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
bands associated with the locality-championing
Medway scene
The Medway scene consists of the bands and related cultural activities of the Medway Towns, north Kent, England. Main towns involved (from West to East) are Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham, and Rainham. The Medway scene is typically dated ...
have referenced Wigmore;
The Buff Medways
Billy Childish (born Steven John Hamper, 1 December 1959) is an English painter, author, poet, photographer, film maker, singer and guitarist. Since the late 1970s, Childish has been prolific in creating music, writing and visual art. He has le ...
in the song "Medway Wheelers" (2005) and the Len Price 3 with "Wigmore Swingers" (2014).
References
Medway
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